Various & Sundry 2019 #6

I have added a lot of new items and designs to the Artquiltmaker Store. Check it out!

This is a super-sized V&S. You’ll need some time. Enjoy!

Books, Research & History

Barbara Brackman has a new block book out called The Kansas City Star Quilts Sampler: 60+ Blocks from 1928 to 1961. She signed some at Quilt Market, but I didn’t see her there.

Martingale has a great post about some historical quilts. I was interested in a family member going back and making labels for the old quilts.

QuiltFiction will be having a discussion about Quilted All Day: The Prairie Journals of Ida Chambers Melugin.

Check out Facts vs. Myths About America’s Quilting Past. After a few clicks, you can find that the answers are footnoted.

Shows, Exhibits & Media

Thanks to Sonja, there is a new exhibit possibility for you. The Century of Women’s Progress exhibit is now accepting entries. I would enter Down the Drain, but they have very specific sizes and my quilt doesn’t fit. Darn it! I could make something else and have the germ of an idea, but I don’t know if it is in the cards right now. How about you?

“The state of Tennessee has a fabulous new museum building in Nashville. Their first temporary exhibit is a quilt show up until July 7th.” Barbara Brackman talks about it on her blog and shows some fabulous photos of amazing piecing and quilting.

Frances O’Roark Dowell, a children’s writer and quilt fiction writer, has now written an essay on why she makes quilts. She has several points, most of which I agree with, especially “A well-designed quilt is deeply pleasurable in a number of ways“.

Linda and Laura Kemshall have posted another free video. It is called  Linda’s Plant Printing Concertina Books Flip-Through.

I saw a blurb about Curated Quilts. I went to the link and ended up on the Color Girl blog where she tempted me to buy an issue. She has a discount code and the issue is about curves. I have been tempted by her ruler, the Classic Curve Ruler, but have been reluctant to buy because I have and use the Quick Curve Rulers (regular and mini). I am not sure of the difference between the two rulers. I don’t want to duplicate, though I am always on board to support small woman owned businesses.

Frances also shared a video of a grandson who explores his grandfather’s amazing journals. This gives me hope that someone will care about my journals someday. It is also a very sweet piece that honors a man’s life work especially the ordinary things he did.

Atlas Obscura did an article on Crimean military quilts. The author doesn’t know much about quiltmaking, at least in my opinion, from reading the first few lines, which isn’t big news. The author also spoke to a quilt historian, Annette Gero. I had never heard of her so went looking. She is described as one of Australia’s leading quilt historians,  and has been documenting and collecting quilts since 1982. She has travelled throughout Australia giving lectures, curating exhibitions of Australian quilts and documenting quilts. There is also a reference to her in the International Quilt Study Center. Fortunately, a lot of the story references different scholarly textile journal articles, which makes me feel better after the beginning of the article. Letters are also referenced, but I wonder if journals would have helped. Perhaps some poor solider kept a journal that included how he came to making an elaborate quilt.  If nothing else, you will enjoy the complexity of the designs included in the article.

HollyAnne Knight wrote a blog post called “Why Quilters Should Ditch Stash Culture.” I have a complicated relationship with my fabric closet. I really like being able to dive in and find a fabric to finish, or start, a project. Also, most of my quilts use many fabrics so having many on hand is good. However, the finite size of fabric closet is a problem, especially when the fabric spills out of it. What do you think?

Barbara Brackman has blog retrospective/tribute to Gwen Marston’s work. The post has a lot of links to other sources if you are interested in exploring Gwen’s work further.

Doing Good

Angels in Gumboots has an update to their Healing Hearts for ChristChurch project. I wrote about this project in April. One line really made me happy and thrilled to be part of such a giving community “We are thrilled to announce that as of today we have 461 finished quilts of either green or multi-coloured hearts. In addition, we have more than 432 quilts that are either at the quilting stage or are blocks still needing to be pieced into tops. ” That is more than 900 quilts!!! NINE HUNDRED!!! Amazing that so many quilts could be made. Good work everyone!

Tools, Supplies, Notions & Fabric

Scissors are critical and frustrating. someone recently posted about their pinking shears, which are hard to open and close. I have this problem with my very expensive pair as well. While this post does not directly address the pinking shears problem, it does talk about scissor care, in general.

Some people in my guild swear by Bloc-Loc rulers. I am pretty happy with my Creative Grids rulers, so I don’t think I will switch. In case I decide I will, I found a ‘how to use Bloc-Loc rulers’ video from American Patchwork & Quilting. What are your favorite rulers and why?

I found another bag hardware site. The site has a lot of movement, which can be annoying, but it has a lot of interesting and different zipper pulls. It looks like most of the pulls are attached to the tops of zippers, not able to attach to any zipper.

I have seen thread cutters for sale and always knew I didn’t need one until I saw the one from Purple Hobbies. It looks like a little flower and uses used rotary blades for cutting. I just might need one. All of the tools and toys are 3D printed and a lot of colors are available. The owner sells other tools like pincushions and bobbin clips as well as a few kitchen supplies.

I ran across Art Gallery’s Floral Elements line the other day on the Stash Fabrics site. I love those fabrics so much and thought for sure they were out of print. I want yards of all of them!

I really love Rock Baby Scissors work. Kristy Sachs, until recently, made custom orders from commercial patterns such as Sew Sweetness RockStar bag. Now she makes what she wants and fills her shop with them. She also has an Amazon page with all of the notions and items she uses.

Patterns, Projects & Tutorials

I am a huge fan of Larissa Holland‘s 12 Days of Christmas wool felt patterns. Note: I have not made any of these. I just love them. I have too many hand projects at the moment. Once I clear the decks with some of those, I will start in on this set. Recently, I found her blog and love her style when she updates patterns. The images aren’t just there for good looks,  but are there as adjuncts to the words.

I belong to Vicki Holloway’s Creative Corner 3 group on FB. She has been prepping hexies and I finally figured out she is working towards making a temperature quilt. I had an idea of what that meant, but wasn’t 100% sure, so I went and looked it up. I am not sure I found where this phenomenon started, but I found a few links that give you an idea what to do. Mel is using the high/low temp each day and making HSTs. Mel also lists her colors for temperature ranges and how to construct the quilt. Darcy talks about making her quilt and also gives some options. Her style is more conversational. She is also using high and low temperatures, but is making the quilt from the year of her birth. Darcy has some nice charts as illustrations. I like the two quilts that Live a Colorful Life made. She talked about living in a climate that didn’t vary much, like I do. We have a lot of 50-60 degree days. She also used squares, which produced a look that was really appealing. If you search for ‘temperature quilt’ on your favorite search engine, you will come up with a variety of examples as well. I think deciding on fabrics and assigning them temperature ranges is the key.

Curves are very trendy now. ColorGirlQuilts has a great ruler, mentioned above. Sew Kind of Wonderful has a couple of great rulers, which you have seen me use in Metroscape and the Lights table runner. Recently I saw a Curated quilts issue all about curves, also mentioned above. Victoria Findlay Wolfe has been teaching her Double Wedding Ring and Pies and Points classes as well. I, recently, found a new pattern from Art Gallery Fabrics. It isn’t that different from ColorGirlQuilts and Sew Kind of Wonderful patterns IMO, but has a slightly different look because it is a Cathedral Window, essentially.

Crafty Gemini has a free tutorial on pressing seams in quilts.

Yes, I am probably obsessed with ColorGirlQuilts right now. I saw her Bikini pattern and may need to get the ruler and make that quilt.

While reading a new blog, I found a scrap challenge called Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I read through some of the blog posts. It seems that the hostess/blog writer chooses a color every month and people link up with their creations in that color at some point during the month. The blogger also had a tutorial in May for a block using orange fabric. I was sad I couldn’t link up, but I haven’t started working on orange yet. Perhaps she will choose red for June and I can link my various quilts up with her then.

Crafty Gemini has a free video tutorial called “How to Cut Fabric for Right & Left Handed Quilters”

If you want to make a Jelly Roll Rug in half circle shape, check out the video. These are good for the floor in front of your sink.

I looked at the Noodlehead site and she has a list of tutorials for bags, wallets and zips.

Are you participating in the current Bad Girl Quilt-a-Long? There is a sneak peek at the finished quilt and it looks interesting. A recent week’s blocks are similar to the blocks used in En Provence. The difference is that this block uses Bias Rectangles and En Provence uses Peaky and Spike blocks. Make sure you check out my resources on Bias Rectangles. The bias rectangles in the quilt-a-long allow you to use a lot more fabrics. If you plan to use bias rectangles, review the resources. Also, just go buy the Split Rects ruler and make your life better. If you plan to use Peaky & Spike blocks, get the correct ruler. Yes, these are specialty rulers, but they will make the cutting much easier. I use my Peaky & Spike ruler frequently.

Other Crafts

I read the Maker’s Mercantile newsletter. It is a lot about knitting, but they also talk about sewing and crochet. Franklin Habit has a column, Fridays with Franklin, or a link to the column on the blog. His writing is very entertaining. He often has knit-a-longs. The most recent one is a Counterpane Pillow Knit-Along. You can find the discussion on Ravelry. It doesn’t start until July, so you have time. It looks cool and I might do it, if I didn’t already have a knitting project. I mention it to introduce you to Franklin Habit and also to suggest another project for you. 😉 Take a look at the most recent newsletter. Make sure you scroll down a little after the page loads. The page is formatted in an odd way. You can also follow Franklin online via Twitter (@franklinhabit), Instagram (@franklin.habit), his Web site (franklinhabit.com) or his Facebook page. He is witty and fun.